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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Week of 4/8/13

We have one “maybe” this week – according to Bloomberg, incoming SEC Chair Mary Jo White is considering hiring a senior high frequency trading (HFT) executive named Chris Concannon to boost the agency’s oversight of HFT and market structure. That sounds good on the surface, but Concannon’s comments quoted in the article sound dangerously easy-going. Better Markets is also concerned. We’ll be watching.

Good

It looks as if states are fighting back against the corrupt MERS (which cheated local counties about of billions), with the next key battleground being Rhode Island. Washington’s Blog at The Big Picture April 11, 2013

Bad

Old tricks like “capital relief trades” are being used by banks to reduce capital levels. Not a good sign since capital levels were one of the key problems which caused the 2008 crisis. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism April 12, 2013.

Ugly

The FED reveals its thinking by claiming bank knowledge of mortgage abuse should be looked at as a “trade secret”. Basically, the Fed’s policy is that bank profit is worth more that public knowledge and the law. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism April 11, 2013.

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb tries to woo pensions to invest in his expensive funds while his organization Students First advocates for abolishing pensions for public employees. Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone April 11, 2013.